Good luck and happiness, @rosered55, in this new stage in your life!
Glad you finally have formal and legal closure @rosered55. Hoping that your future is filled with all good things!
Congratulations on getting through the rather daunting process, rosered55! May you go into the future with greater contentment.
Glad to hear it, rosered.
Regarding health insurance, if you have individual insurance, divorce is a qualifying event which will enable you to make changes now, even though it’s not open enrollment (or get insurance if you don’t have it). Go to the exchange, or call. You might for a subsidy which will make the cost reasonable.
Look into if you have met your deductibles before you change your insurance coverage. With a new coverage you may lose the deductibles your have to date and have to start all over again.
rosered - good luck. You may go through different emotions over time, but it will get better.
When selling your principal residence, single people have half ($250k) the capital gains tax exclusion of a married couple ($500k).
Agree about the insurance defuctibles, but the flip side is that there are time limits on taking advantage of the life event to make a change, too. It all has to go into the calculation.
@GMTplus7, yes the capital gains exclusion is $250K each, BUT the ex-spouse’s half, if the seller now owns it, has a cost basis of market price at date of acquired. If that is the case, it is a good idea to get an appraisal soon after the divorce for that purpose.
Most of the time an appraisal is done as part of the divorce proceedings in order to equitably split the property if it is not being sold. So this maybe has already been done.
Good point, @intparent, mine was acquired after my husband’s death. We had to extrapolate value from an old HELOC appraisal and the sale data to determine value on date of death.
Best typo!
Oops… phone typing :">
“BUT the ex-spouse’s half, if the seller now owns it, has a cost basis of market price at date of acquired.”
This is absolutely not the case for property acquired incident to divorce. There’s no step up in basis for divorce the way there is for death.
Here’s to a new beginning, @rosered55.
…moving forward to your own drumbeat. Be nice to yourself @rosered55.
Weighing in to agree with @allyphoe. The step-up basis that occurs upon death of a spouse does not occur upon divorce.
Also to agree with @oldfort that it may make sense to remain on the existing medical plan through the end of this year and then evaluate plan designs and premiums during the year-end ACA Open Enrollment. Have to look at current plan design/premium combo versus ACA plans, and also consider how much of deductible or out-of-pocket have been satisfied.
Congrats and best wishes @rosered55
I carry the health insurance for the family. My contribution to premiums will drop about $50 per month when ex-H is no longer on the plan and will go down substantially when both Ds are off next year. I’m looking forward to that savings.
I have the privilege of living in a city in which property values have risen substantially since we bought our house. But with that privilege comes a price, obviously, in that the property taxes are high and I’m closing in on reaching the $250,000 limit for tax exemption for a single person. But I’ve accepted that as a consequence of being a home owner and eventually a home seller.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but with receipts, all the home improvement costs can be deducted from the profit figure.
For example, I’ve paid far more than $100,000 for replacing roof, redoing kitchen, floors, windows, etc. I’ll probably break even, but good for you if you make a nice profit.
@bookworm – you may be able to avoid capital gains tax if your selling price is not more than original purchase price + cost of capital improvements + closing costs (conveyance tax, broker commissions) + $250K/single or $500K/couple exclusion.
The list of eligible deductions is interesting in that it includes things such as in-ground sprinkler systems but exclude maintenance painting. For instance, wall-to-wall carpeting is included, but not if it is later removed.
With the sale of my old house a few weeks ago, am just waking up to the tax liability regarding the capitol gains on appreciation. Until reading this thread, I didn’t realize that couples have a larger exclusion. This fact totally irritates me, having maintained the place and paid appreciable property taxes on that house with my single income over the years.
This is on top of the recent cut to Social Security income possibilities because I can’t claim on my ex H’s account before claiming my own. I was born 11 months too late.
So I am feeling rather maligned in terms of how single people are treated economically right now. On the other hand, I love being in charge of my own economic fortunes.